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I’m looking for opinions

GowaGowa
edited December 2018 in DIY

I’m looking at some Rival drivers for the coming year. I’m looking for sane opinions.

The ones I’m looking at are:

· Coated carbon fiber similar look to Morel SCW 636 cone but not sandwich in 5.5’’ ($54-$59), 7’’($69-$79) and 8.5’’($99-$110)

· Paper in 5.5’’ ($54-$59) and 8.5’’ ($99-$110) cone is different from the ‘P’ and ‘CP’

· Kevlar in 5.5’’ ($54-$59)

The 5.5'' is available with the 100 mm motor but I'm opting for the 120 mm beast motor.  :)

We will be dropping the KVC in favor of the coated carbon fiber. We have KVC on sale at the moment. (Price per pair)

 

There are different versions of the drivers and I can’t carry all.

So, I’ve decided first to see which 5.5’’ would be in favor.

R152 (5.5’’)

  • Which cone would be preferable?
  • Would lower fs at the sacrifice of spl be favorable?
  • What fs and spl (1w/m) would realistically be in favor? 
I'm also looking at their sandwich drivers. As you know RAD is all about value, so we'll see if those fall into the scheme. 

Comments

  • dcibeldcibel
    Gowa said:

    · Paper in 5.5’’ ($54-$59) and 8.5’’ ($99-$110) cone is different from the ‘P’ and ‘CP’


    Heck Yes! 3-way or the freeway!
    rjj45
    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • Tom_STom_S
    Can you come close the specs of the SS 15W/8530K-00 at 1/3 the price? ;)

    Seriously though, if the coated kevlar is as smooth & well behaved as the KVC - that would be a nice driver. I think fs vs. spl depends -  are more people building small monitors or 3-ways these days? 
  • GowaGowa
    Tom_S said:
    Can you come close the specs of the SS 15W/8530K-00 at 1/3 the price? ;)

    Seriously though, if the coated kevlar is as smooth & well behaved as the KVC - that would be a nice driver. I think fs vs. spl depends -  are more people building small monitors or 3-ways these days? 
    Did you mean coated carbon?
    I can only assume that people are building small monitors more.
  • dcibeldcibel
    People will always be building more small monitors than 3-ways, but 3-ways are more exciting. In any case, the 5.5" and 8.5" combo sounds great, and a 5.5" size can work well for small monitors too ;)
    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • rjj45rjj45
    I think the "matched sets" of 5.5, 7 and 8.5 will be good sellers. (so no kevlar)  Carbon fiber gets all the love these days, but I think you are seeing here more interest in paper.  Realistically, a driver has to have some "balance". I was looking seriously at a 5 inch driver in my stash that has decent FR and low distortion, but only has 83 dB at 2.83 v.  Decided that it would be hard to use either in a small TM or in a larger 3 way, the efficiency was not good enough.

    But, in good news, I modeled the R223 ceramic I got from you (40L w 12 inch PR) , and it looks like a killer bottom end for a small tower 3 way. The key was that it had plenty of xmax, and of course I know the SQ and distortion will be good.
    But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
  • GowaGowa
    edited December 2018
    rjj45 said:
    But, in good news, I modeled the R223 ceramic I got from you (40L w 12 inch PR) , and it looks like a killer bottom end for a small tower 3 way. The key was that it had plenty of xmax, and of course I know the SQ and distortion will be good.
    Just be careful with the 8'' drivers. For some reason, the OEM wanted a light cone which means delicate. I dented a 7'' very easily.
    I tried to get the 5.5'' alu/ceramic from the same OEM guy, but he wouldn't let them go. Those are completely flat to 3k and have a small peak at about 7k. They have the large motor, fs 55 and 86 dB 1w/m.  :'(
    The coated carbon drivers will be from Rival's stable. So there will be no OEM mods.
    I personally like Kevlar allot. What I hear is a combination of paper and metal, detailed yet warm. 
    Rival has quite a variety of 'paper' drivers. The ones I'm after are the pulp/Kevlar composite. (8'', 7'' and 5.5'')

  • rjj45rjj45
    Thanks for the tip about the cones. I"m bound to "nerf it up".
    Yah, I think the paper/kevlar cone would be good. 
    The Rival engineers sure know how to design motors.
    But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
  • GowaGowa
    edited December 2018

    They have another series with beefy Neo motors. I asked about their carbon sandwich drivers. Those are strikingly similar to Morel's SCW 636. Very snazzy, but, we all know how cheap DIY'ers are, so we probably won't see those.  :) 
    I wish this board had the ability to take a poll.

  • jr@macjr@mac
    Maybe we can set up a survey monkey poll. 
    rjj45Gowa
    I have a signature.
  • GowaGowa
    Tom_S said:

    Seriously though, if the coated kevlar is as smooth & well behaved as the KVC - that would be a nice driver. I think fs vs. spl depends -  are more people building small monitors or 3-ways these days? 

    The KVC didn't get much love and after the disappointment of the 'P', we may not bring in the paper/Kevlar drivers.
    We're interested in the carbon drivers. Hopefully, we can get a reasonable MOQ and price to satisfy the penny-wise.
  • konfyousedkonfyoused
    Yeah, I'm thinking the carbon fiber models would make for some real nice looking builds. Would really love to see some of those neo motor drivers, and how they spec out, I'm sure they'll be a bit pricey, but if they're anything like the current Rivals, they'll be hard to beat!
  • GowaGowa
    I doubt that we will venture down the Neo road. $$$$$DIY$$$$$DIY$$$$$$
  • e6zione6zion
    rjj45 said:
    I think the "matched sets" of 5.5, 7 and 8.5 will be good sellers. (so no kevlar)  Carbon fiber gets all the love these days, but I think you are seeing here more interest in paper.  Realistically, a driver has to have some "balance". I was looking seriously at a 5 inch driver in my stash that has decent FR and low distortion, but only has 83 dB at 2.83 v.  Decided that it would be hard to use either in a small TM or in a larger 3 way, the efficiency was not good enough.

    But, in good news, I modeled the R223 ceramic I got from you (40L w 12 inch PR) , and it looks like a killer bottom end for a small tower 3 way. The key was that it had plenty of xmax, and of course I know the SQ and distortion will be good.
    That's why I'm building with the [now antique] Audax HM130.  High efficiency mids are few and far between.  Truth be told, I would much rather build a classic 3 way with Rival drivers than discontinued ones.

    GOWA

    1) I would rather see a higher spl than low f's.  I want low f's in 6-7in drivers.  I would rather cross a 5.5 to something bigger for the low end.

    2) Matching cone materials for the 5.5 & 8 would be preferable (whatever material wins).  I like carbon fiber appearance, but the lower end cones have nasty breakup which is why morel/magico went with carbon/rhoacell.  If available, whatever happened to those woven poly cones you sold out of instantaneously?  Poly is generally affordable with a lovely midrange.  That would be my first choice.

    3) I'd also be interested in pricing for the truly SOTA drivers--neo motors, sandwich cones, etc.  If they end up being out of your market, so be it.  Perhaps you could set up a gofundme for preorders or just throw out a number to guage interest--maybe difficult if it infringes on Satori territory, but who knows?  For me, so much money and time is spent on the cabinet and crossover, saving a little bit on the drivers just isn't as big of a concern. 

    As I've mentioned to you earlier, I really like my pair of the R176-KJ-08, and wouldn't mind seeing more of those.    
    rjj45
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